UK insurance buyout firm Resolution is the pick of the bunch today, after announcing its plans to return £500m of excess cash to shareholders.Citi has reiterated its 'buy' recommendation on the stock, saying that - given lower asset and debt leverage - "the Resolution business should be at a premium [to UK peers] given potentially lower cost of capital."Sector peers Legal & General, Admiral and Standard Life are also on the rise.Utilities stocks Centrica and Scottish & Southern Energy are also providing a lift.Meanwhile, the retail sector is registering some losses. May retail sales were down by 2.1% on a like-for-like basis from the same month last year, new figures from the British Retail Council show, demonstrating the fragility of consumer sentiment in Britain. Costa Coffee owner Whitbread, high street group Marks & Spencer and supermarket chains Sainsbury, Morrison and Tesco are heading lower.---BCFTSE 100 - RisersResolution Ltd. (RSL) 310.70p +3.60%Centrica (CNA) 322.20p +2.45%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 116.00p +2.11%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,742.00p +1.93%Standard Life (SL.) 207.50p +1.92%Xstrata (XTA) 1,379.50p +1.77%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,395.00p +1.75%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.72p +1.74%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,003.00p +1.68%Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,212.00p +1.54%FTSE 100 - FallersReed Elsevier (REL) 546.50p -1.71%Whitbread (WTB) 1,554.00p -1.71%Amec (AMEC) 1,113.00p -1.24%Tesco (TSCO) 412.55p -1.19%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,544.00p -1.15%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,209.00p -1.14%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 335.80p -1.03%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 298.00p -1.00%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,918.00p -0.99%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,026.00p -0.83%